


Aftermath

by dragon_lovely



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Cheryl Blossom Needs a Hug, F/F, Fluff, Past Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Protective Toni
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 09:06:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15603006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_lovely/pseuds/dragon_lovely
Summary: When Nick St. Clair comes back to Riverdale, Toni learns just how much Cheryl has gone through in her life.Basically a super angsty fic with Protective Toni.





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> I guess I wrote this because I didn't see enough fics addressing the events of Cheryl's life, so I wrote one. Please leave a comment or kudos if you have anything to say. Thanks!
> 
> I might decide to write another chapter depending on how popular this fic is.

Cheryl and Toni sat across from each other on a bench at Pop’s, sharing a strawberry milkshake and an order of fries and talking. Cheryl was, at the moment, criticizing their French teacher because of the project she assigned in class, or more accurately, how the professor picked the partners for the said project.

“Honestly,” Cheryl complained, picking up a fry and looking at it distastefully, “Madame Angelie makes sure to keep up on school gossip half so she can pick favorites from the grade and half so she can make sure to keep couples from working together. I mean, why not just let us choose our groups like a normal teacher?”

The redhead was referring to how Madame Angelie had “randomly” picked the groups again, somehow managing to make every student in the class feel like they had been cheated of a good partner. Cheryl herself was paired with Dilton Doiley, who had spent the entire class trying and failing to write an essay about how to safely make a campfire and completely ignoring the actual project, which was to write a report about the French Revolution. Toni was paired with Melody, the drummer from the Pussycats, and she was overall happy with her partner, though the girl wasn’t exactly the sharpest knife.

“Are you sure you aren’t just jealous of the fact that she paired Jughead and Betty together? Because I saw the way you were glaring at the head of Juggie all class long. I was afraid that the lasers coming from your eyes would ruin that iconic hat of his,” Toni teased.

Cheryl’s response was interrupted by the ringing of the door, followed by the Scooby Gang, excluding Jughead, who promptly walked up to their booth. Veronica headed the party, and a focused but worried look on her face made Toni straighten her back just a little.

Of course, she wasn’t at all intimidated by the raven-haired socialite, but having all three of the teenagers approach them at Pop’s, the unspoken haven from the rest of Riverdale put her slightly on edge.

“This group never bodes well for any peaceful day I’m having,” Cheryl murmured, rolling her eyes and taking another sip of their milkshake. 

“Cheryl, I am so sorry. I have to talk to you.” Veronica stood with her arms crossed, Betty and Archie on either side of her, but her tone was worried and apologetic.

“Anything you and your ragtag group of Agatha Christie writers have to say to me can say it in front of my girlfriend,” Cheryl retorted, glancing over to Toni with a small smile on her face. 

Toni had no doubt that she returned the smile, and that pleasant, golden glow that began whenever she thought about Cheryl, her girlfriend, started to make itself known. However, these happy thoughts were abruptly cut off by Veronica’s voice.

“I would Cheryl, I really would, but I think that this subject is very sensitive and I really think we should talk...privately.” Cheryl rolled her eyes once more, but complied, lifting herself from the bench and walking over to Veronica. Archie and Betty slid into the bench across from Toni, but the pink-haired girl kept her eyes focused on Cheryl and Veronica, not even reprimanding them for taking her girlfriend’s seat. 

Their conversation started innocently enough, with Cheryl using her HBIC facade in an attempt to ward Veronica off, but as soon as Veronica whispered whatever she needed to say, Cheryl froze.

The redhead, who was already pale enough, visibly whitened and tensed, becoming ramrod straight as Veronica continued her whispered conversation. Despite the efforts of Betty and Archie, Toni stalked over to Veronica, and more importantly Cheryl, just long enough to hear the end of their conversation.

“I am so sorry Cheryl, but my dad invited him back and-”

“What the hell is going on here?” Toni interrupted, glaring at Veronica. Veronica whipped her head around, obviously not having heard the short girl come over, but Cheryl stayed still as if she was the ice queen everyone believed her to be. “You come and interrupt my girlfriend and I on our date with some big important news, and then I come over and hear something about your douche of a dad? So, once again, what the hell is going on here?” 

Toni would have continued her rant, but was distracted by the fact that Cheryl had grabbed her hand and whispered urgently,

“Toni, please, I need to go home right now.”

“But, Cher, what’s going-”

“I promise I will explain everything, I just-I can’t be here right now.” Cheryl was practically pleading now, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes that she wouldn’t let out yet, not here, and Toni caved. Giving Pop what was probably too much money for the small meal they had shared, she grasped Cheryl’s hand and began to lead her outside. Veronica, realizing that it was out of her hands, for now, sighed and sat down across from Archie and Betty.

Toni, however, forgot that there were even other patrons in the diner. All focus was on her girlfriend, who looked like she was about to collapse right there in the middle of the parking lot.

“My house or yours?” Toni whispered, rubbing Cheryl’s back soothingly and wishing there more she could do to help. Cheryl, after a few seconds, whispered.

“Yours, please. I don’t think I can handle Thistlehouse right now. I just-” Cheryl took a shuddering breath, and Toni nodded, her heart cracking a little.

The ride home was quiet, despite the roaring of the motorcycle, and Cheryl clutched Toni around the waist as if the shorter girl was the only thing keeping her connected to the world. Toni supposed this might be true, from the worrisome way she had been acting.

It wasn’t until Toni and Cheryl were curled into each other, under the covers in Toni’s bed, that Cheryl began her stuttering explanation.

“It was the beginning of the school year, maybe December, when Veronica invited us all over to her house for a party. She was trying to impress a friend of hers from New York and decided to host a party to show that the teens in Riverdale weren’t all prudes. His name was Nick-Nick St. Clair. He made me feel, well, noticed, which was very different from my usual company. I just wanted to prove to everyone that I wasn’t loveless, that someone could fall for me and care about me.”

Toni shifted closer, as if she believed if she got close enough she could just absorb all of the hurt that the redhead was feeling because, God, there was too much there, and she was so good at hiding it around everyone and she just didn’t understand why no one else had noticed how alone Cheryl was in the world and they just used her and-

Toni cut herself off from these thoughts. She knew they couldn’t help the redhead, and she could just spiral into a whirlwind of hatred and protectiveness over all that Cheryl had gone through, but her girlfriend needed her now and Toni intended to make sure that any time she spent with the redhead could alleviate at least part of the sadness, if only for a short time. So she listened to Cheryl as she continued, voice growing stronger with each sentence.

“I thought that maybe, there was some way for him to take me away from all of this madness, so I got drunk and laughed and even did jingle-jangle with him and put on that flippant, flirty mask I have and partied all night and then before I left he smiled at me and I smiled back. I thought that maybe, just maybe, I had done it. I had found someone that actually liked me, and who cared that it was just a mask. But-but then we met up again, at the Lodge’s party for SoDale the next day. I thought he was so, I don’t know, chivalrous, with a glass of champagne ready for me and so I drank it. We talked for a little while, but as the Pussycats began their song, I started to-”

Cheryl took a shuddering breath and pulled her knees up to her chest. Toni had a sick feeling that she knew where this was going, and she was praying to God that her girlfriend hadn’t had to get through the pain she suspected.

“I’m sorry, T.T., I just-I’ve never told the story to anyone and-and,” she took another deep breath, and Toni reached out and rubbed her back, whispering softly,

“It’s okay, Cher, I promise, I would never judge you over anything. You can trust me, okay? I’m not going to betray you, I swear on my life. You can trust me, I promise”

Cheryl looked up and took a few more tremulous breaths before continuing, speaking quickly, as if a dam had broken and the words were water pouring from her beautiful red lips.

“I started to feel weak, and woozy, and Nick put a hand on my waist, far more intimately than I wanted, and I suddenly felt so heavy, and all I could hear was my heartbeat. 

My legs gave out and he scooped me up and he was carrying me somewhere, and I was so tired but all I could feel were his hands on me, roaming, touching, and then he opened a door and dropped me on a bed. He began to take off his jacket, and then he put his hand on my thigh, and-and-and it was getting closer and closer and then Veronica and Josie came in and started to hit him, but all I could think was that this was what I deserve. My mother was right about me-I was completely unlovable. 

Then Veronica took me back to her house and gave me some sort of hot drink before my mother came dragged me home, as if I had been the one to do something wrong, and told me that we would be accepting the hush money that the St. Clair’s had offered and then it was just over. No one knew except Veronica and her gang, and the Pussycats, and it just-it just sort of lodged in my brain. After the first night, it seemed like no one cared. Ronnie checked on me once, but after that...I guess I compartmentalized it. The only part of myself that I let feel what I had gone through was my subconscious. I had nightmares for weeks after, of phantom hands touching my skin and devilish grins and jackets falling and-”

Now a real dam broke, as all of the pent-up emotion came out and Cheryl began to sob, hard, heaving cries as she buried her face in Toni’s shoulder. Toni grasped her tightly, tighter than she ever had before, and whispered into her hair as Cheryl finally let out all of these feelings.  
Cheryl was reciprocating, clutching Toni as tightly as she could, nails digging into her back, but Toni didn’t care. She just stroked her girlfriend’s hair and rocked her, slowly working her through what she had been through and what she had to deal with.

 

Toni lay in bed, clutching her girlfriend as close to her chest as she could. After the emotions that both of the girls had been feeling, Toni and her girlfriend stayed in the trailer watching Netflix shows while practically on top of each other. Not in a sexual way or anything, just because it made Cheryl feel safe, and after the violation she had gone through and the story Toni had learned about, the short girl had trouble letting Cheryl go to the bathroom alone because it meant that the redhead was out of her sight.

Though Cheryl was sleeping (lightly), Toni was having trouble closing her eyes. Every time she heard even the slightest sound she jolted awake. Some sort of protective spirit awoke within her when Cheryl told her story, and Toni was having trouble getting it to calm down.

She was just so sad about what happened to her girlfriend. Cheryl already went through so much, she didn’t need all of this to happen to her. It was like they were in some sadistic show and the writers refused to let Cheryl be happy. Despite the limited time that Toni and Cheryl had been dating, their relationship was the best thing in Toni’s life, and every time Cheryl broke down her walls to let Toni in, she felt herself breaking a little more on the inside.

She was also angry. No, not angry. Enraged. She had not felt this much anger in a long, long, time, and she knew this wasn’t the right time but God-how could she not be angry? After everything that Cheryl had gone through how could she not be absolutely furious at the world? She understood why Cheryl played the role of the bitchy popular girl. How else was she supposed to get rid of all her anger at the world?

Toni’s musings were interrupted by a Cheryl shifting in her arms, whimpering a little as she batted her eyes groggily.

“Cheryl, babe, hey. Are you okay? What’s wrong, baby?” Toni asked, immediately worried.

“No, it’s nothing, it’s just,” Cheryl’s sentence was broken by a yawn, and she leaned onto Toni’s shoulder, already half asleep, “I love you, you know?”. Then she was asleep again.

“I love you too, baby girl,” Toni whispered lovingly, holding her girlfriend just a little more tightly that night.


End file.
